9 students in Paragraph Writing make, and then to be able to become not only as an
English language user in professional fields but also as a language teacher who masters subject-verb agreement. Therefore, when they graduate, it will make them
able to become a model for their students especially in giving the example of a sentence whose subject-verb agreement is correct.
E. Definition of Terms
In order to make it easier for readers to follow the discussion and to avoid misinterpretation and misunderstanding, the researcher presents some terms that
are often used in this research. They are:
1. Subject-Verb Agreement
In order to be able to give the definition of subject-verb agreement, the researcher, first, tries to define the definition of subject and verb. Langan 1996
defines that a subject is who or what the sentence speaks about p. 297. This research agrees that subject is who or what the sentence speaks about. Then,
Langan 1996 mentions that verb is what the sentence says about the subject and verb also tells people the time of an action p. 297, p. 347. In addition, according
to Ellsworth 1981, verb is a word or group of words used to tell something about the subject p. 9. In this research, verb refers to a word or group of words used to
tell something about the subject and to tell people the time of an action. Then, after obtaining the clear definition of subject and verb, the
researcher, then, tries to give the definition of subject-verb agreement. According to Wood 1981, the rule says that a verb must agree with its subject both in
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
10 number and in person p. 12. Then, Quirk and Greenbaum 1973 mention that
the subject is used to determine concord, with those parts of the verb that distinguish between singular and plural, and the selected verb depends on whether
the subject is singular or plural p. 10. In this research, subject-verb agreement can be defined as a rule which states that verb must agree with its subject, which
determines concord, in number and in person.
2. Error
Ellis 2003 states that error shows gaps in knowledge that learners have; error can appear because the learners do not know what is correct p. 17. In
addition, Corder 1971 mentions that error is a failure of the rule of the code and it depends on what particular variety of the target language which is considered as
the ‘code’ as cited in Ellis Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 56. In this research, error refers to a wrong or an incorrect rules of subject-verb agreement applied in a
sentence by the second semester students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP. The error can appear in a sentence written by the students because the students do
not know the correct rules of subject-verb agreement to apply in the sentence. Further,
the term error, admitted as competence error, can be used to present any deviation from a selected norm of language performance, admitted as
mistake, without considering the characteristics or causes of the deviation Dulay et al., 1982, p. 139. Its underlying reason is because the term error is not
specified only to competence based deviations in order to facilitate reference to deviations that have not been classified as performance errors, which have been
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11 called as mistake in some language literature Corder, 1967, as cited in Dulay et
al., 1982, p. 139, or competence errors. Besides, Dulay et al. 1982, p. 139, further mention that the disctinction between performance and competence error
is essential, but to determine the nature of a deviation without doing careful analysis is still not easy to do. In addition, it is difficult to determine whether the
wrong or the incorrect rules of subject-verb agreement applied in a sentence by the students is an error or a mistake because at that time the students were in
Progress Test, where they did not have a chance to revise their written work. Therefore, in this research, the researcher assumes that every incorrect subject-
verb agreement in a sentence that the students in Paragraph Writing class made is an error.
3. Paragraph Writing Course
